New project: SBS 2011 Standard

by Marin Franković on 6 February, 2011

Today I started working on a new project, SBS 2011 Standard. This project is one part of a preparation for couple of readiness seminars for Microsoft and their partners. Goal is to show how Microsoft SBS 2011 cab help small and medium size companies to save money and do business more efficiently.

First step is of course, the installation. I will be using my standard Hyper-V test server to deploy one SBS 2011 server, one Windows Server 2008 R2 that will act as a router and one internal client. If time permits, one more external client will be added. Clients are of course Windows 7 machines. On the right is a snapshot of initial installation process.

Before starting installation, make sure that you have correctly set up your router, because if you did not, SBS installation wizard will not be successful. Make sure there are no DHCP server on the network segment that you are installing SBS 2011. Here is network diagram of my setup.

After the initial operating system installation finishes, we have to choose setup mode. I will go with Clean Install option.

After successfully finishing installation, we can start main SBS console and continue to configure our server.

First thing you need to do is to start “Connect to the Internet” wizard. It is very important that this wizard finishes successfully, since many other configuration tasks depend on it.

After this we can start other wizards which will configure our Internet address, Smart Host for mail, backup or add a trusted certificate. Later on I will be adding some users and connecting their computer to SBS domain with wizard that can be found on http://connect web site of SBS server.

I have done the SBS 2003 many times and it was a “piece-of-cake.” This SBS 2011 does not follow that “easy” install. I started the 2011 SBS install several times and when I get to select OS which do I choose (2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise R2)? I have done both and after install but not sure. After OS install I dont see the SBS console?? I am looking for a little help. Thanks. Matt

I figured it out. When I bought SBS2011, I bought both the STD and premium (SQL). The problem was that I only got the premium (SQL). So I was using the SQL DVD to do the install. What was happening was that I was installing Windows server 2008, not SBS. As soon as I figured out that Dell didn’t send both DVDs. I called them and they gave me a long story. Short is that I had to go to the MS site and download SBS. Once I got the right software install SBS 2011 went dmooth. Matt

I am interested in the following:
If i have a machine with SBS 2011 installed, can I still access Internet directly over router (reffering to your network schema above). If not, does SBS2011 slows the internet connection to network workstations.

My setup is: Internet–EdgeFirewall–ForeFrontTMG–SBS2011
IP of SBS is 10.20.1.7
IP of ForeFront is 10.20.1.3 (with webproxy on port 80)
How do I get around the problem of no router being detected by the “Connect to the Internet” wizard?

I have a SBS 2003 and planning to revamp the entire domain by installing a new SBS 2011 server, clean install. I want to know if I can pre-configure the server first by creating users, computers, installing additional software ie End Point, Backup Exec etc then take the server onsite to hook up to the internet and proceed from there?

sure you can, but what will happen to user rights and permisions that where used on old 2003 SBS domain? Best way to procedee is to do it by the book. Here is TechNet link that will help you to do just that: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg563801.aspx . After you migrate all users and other objects, reinstall all needed software o nnew machine.

Org. currently does not use sharepoint at all nor do they have a common file share directory. My plan is to preconfigure server then take on site. Once onsite I would go to each PC, create a PST file. Then swapp out servers. Configure internet connections. Domain name will remain the same as previous server. Join PCs to the new server, move files from old profile to new and import the PST back into their outlook. There are about 55 PCs and 7 printers to configure. I know this is a lot of work but I think it will be worth it in the long run.
Thoughts?

I have another question concerning using a answer file and in the blank that ask for the DNS name MS recommends not to use the top level domain name (.org) but instead wants to use .local?? My question is why? Id rather keep it simple and start with the top level?